Rarely does a play supply both entertainment and profundity. "Annapurna" is a welcome example of a such a play. The script pulses with credible, often amusing dialogue combined with a simple yet shattering story that honors the fragility of the characters and viewers alike. Using just two characters, each focused mainly on his and her own perspectives, the single act presents a universe of possibilities in less than two hours.
Laughter opened Perseverance Theatre's production of the play on Friday night as the lights went up to reveal Ulysses (Kevin T. Bennett) wearing nothing but an apron and an oxygen tank, standing at the stove of his tiny, cluttered, claustrophobic trailer, his backside facing the audience.
Ulysses is a once-acclaimed cowboy poet and college professor now living in poverty in a remote Rocky Mountains hamlet and dying of cancer. As he fries up spoiled sausage to feed to his ill-mannered dog, his ex-wife Emma, played by Rebecca George, comes to the door with suitcases.
It's been 20 years since she left him in the middle of the night, taking their five-year-old son with her, two decades in which he has received no communication from either of them despite writing letters two or three times each week. There's a lot of catching up to do, but neither is ready to show their cards all at once. Instead, they launch into conversation almost as if they've only been apart for a couple of hours. He gripes about his do-gooder neighbor while he struggles to dress himself. She talks about her second husband's failed business venture while tidying up the messy place.
This is not a straight-arrow course toward resolution, catharsis and epiphany. Happily, playwright Sharr White keeps the chatter amusing with Ulysses' colorful and wry language and Emma's tart ripostes. As he steps out the door in a state of undress, he explains, "By day, all my neighbors are pretty much naked too. It's like the ugliest, saddest accidental nudist colony you ever saw."
We come to like both of them, despite the darkness lurking in their relationship, and to see how they once loved each other and, in fact, still do. The hope and loss of their lives is clearly felt as the cords between them emerge line by line.
The unspoken cause of the darkness is telegraphed in several spots, but there is still a shock when it is revealed. Then, in the aftermath, comes a glimmer of closure and acceptance, a vision of love that is both essential yet destructive, something like an apotheosis as Ulysses prepares to leave his mountain "purgatory" with a greater clarity of mind, painfully attained.
Under the direction of Art Rotch, George and Bennett give fine portrayals of their roles. There isn't a wasted gesture or moment. Despite the humor, which continues to the last words, "Annapurna" is a mighty Euripidean tragedy, one of the best in recent years. It is not about politics, history, aesthetics, philosophy or such grand ideas that too often get in the way of great theater. It is about two people and what makes them -- and us -- human. It's a tragedy I would cheerfully see again and again.
ANNAPURNA will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 3 at Sydney Laurence Theatre. Tickets are available at centertix.net. It will be staged again May 6-29 in Juneau.